I Want To See

July 2006. A war breaks out in Lebanon. A new war, but not just one more war. A war that crushes the hopes of peace and the momentum of our generation. We no longer know what to write, what stories to recount, what images to show. We ask ourselves: What can cinema do That question, we decide to translate it into reality. We go to Beirut with an icon, an actress who, to us, symbolizes cinema, Catherine Deneuve. She will meet our preferred actor, Rabih Mroué. Together, they will drive through the regions devastated by the conflict. Through their presence, their meeting, we hope to find the beauty which our eyes no longer perceive. It is the beginning of an unpredictable, unexpected adventure

“On July 2006, during the war with Israel that broke out in Lebanon, we were stuck in Paris. For the first time, we were living the war at a distance, as spectators. The war was a real upheaval.

It wasn’t just any war, or one more war. By plunging us again in a cycle of violence it crowned an historic evolution and was part of a more global division of the world, made more radical by 9/11. Beyond the conflict as such, the 2006 war deepened the unrest in Lebanon, the internal tensions, the antagonist projects splitting the population. Once again, we were confronted with the difficulty of having to live side by side.

We badly wanted to do a film on this war but we were full of questions : In the face of a very violent war, of the spectacular images of television, what kind of images could we produce?

What can cinema do in such situations of extreme violence ? We decided to ask this question in a direct way, to introduce fiction by way of a cinema icon, in a situation which seems to admit only a flood of images hastily termed real or documentary.

Suggest to Catherine Deneuve, an actress we greatly admire and who, through her choices, represents Cinema, to drive till the border of South Lebanon together with Rabih Mroué, an artist and actor with whom we work constantly. The idea seemed close to alchemy. In such a context, what would their meeting produce? What emotion could arise? Would we be able to “show again” images of ruins and despear and make people react to it ? Would we be able to “see again” ?

AWARDS

AWARD FOR THE BEST DOCUMENTARY / NON Fiction Film, Gigon film festival Jury Prize at Festival WATCH DOCS/Human Rights in Film IFF Polland Best singular film of the Year 2008 awarded by the French syndicat de la critique